


Meet-Cute

by theboardwalkbody



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Meet-Cute, No beta we die like my respect for Abby, after she left buck hanging for so long and then turned up with a fiance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29415972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theboardwalkbody/pseuds/theboardwalkbody
Summary: Firefighter Eddie Diaz and Nurse Katie and their series of chance meetings.
Relationships: Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)/Original Female Character(s), Eddie Diaz/OFC, Eddie Diaz/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Meet-Cute

Katie had just sat down in the breakroom to quickly grab a bite of her sandwich when the fire alarms started blaring. The sound pierced her ears and her immediate reaction was a roll of her eyes and another bite of her lunch. Still chewing she stood up and walked out of the small room and out to the nurses station, the alarm even louder from the hallways. Aides darted around the unit making sure patients were safe and shutting their doors, a quick glance down the hall showed that the unit secretary had already made sure the fire door was closed. 

"Is it real?" She asked another nurse who was in the middle of charting.  
"Yeah, one of the elevators caught fire," was their response.  
"Awesome," she replied, tired from the eight hours she had been working and from the annoyance at the volume and pitch of the alarms. The flashing of the alarm lights combined with the sound was beginning to give her a migraine. 

She sat down in a chair behind the desk, lunch break cancelled due to the Code Red. It was an occurrence that happened regularly. Once every couple of months the alarm would sound. Either a test that was over after a few seconds or because of a kitchen fire, smoke in a vent, or an issue with one of the dozens of elevators. Luckily it was never anything serious, but that just made them a nuisance. 

After about 5 minutes of listening to alarms loud enough to rattle her skull there was a slamming sound from down the hallway. The fire doors were pushed open and in walked a team of firefighters. Every nurse, aide, housekeeper, and secretary stopped whatever they were in the middle of to look up and watch the parade of uniformed people make their way down the hall to the opposite end of the hall where the units back elevator was located behind another set of fire doors. As they passed she made eye contact (as much eye contact as could be made with them wearing a helmet with a face shield, she figured they could see her better than she could see them) with one of the men who walked by. One of the nurses made a comment about how they should start fires more often just for the show. 

"Guess it's our lucky day," the extroverted nurse smiled. 

It was a welcome distraction and Katie wasn't opposed to the sight of firefighters working on her unit, but she did want them to hurry up so that damn alarm would turn off. 

By the time the alarm was turned off it had become a background noise and the sudden cessation of it left behind a sudden few seconds of silence that were almost as deafening as the alarm itself. There was a soft cheer as the assaulting sound finally stopped, but it would still be a while before their ears would stop ringing. She was sure she would be hearing that alarm in her ears for days. 

"Finally," her patient sighed as she leaned over to administer a dose of heparin to his stomach. "I don't know why they had to leave the damn alarm on that long."  
"I guess it's just protocol," she said, "little pinch." She quickly administered the injection and added, "I agree with you, though, it is definitely not a very pleasant sound. You're all set now, can I grab you anything?"  
"Nah, I'm fine for now, just going to let my ears rest," he said.  
"Alright, if you think of anything you have your call bell," Katie nodded. 

She tossed her gloves in the trash and washed her hands with the hand sanitizer attached to the wall. Now that the Code Red was cleared she left the patients door open after she left. She wasn't entirely paying attention as she walked out of the room, her mind elsewhere, and she nearly collided with one of the firefighters walking by on their way back out. She stopped short, narrowly avoiding a collision. 

"Shit, sorry," she apologized, face flushing with embarrassment. 

The man she almost walked into had stopped, his arm had shot out and his hand placed on her shoulder as a reflex to stop her from falling had she bumped into him and lost her balance. His helmet was off now and she could have sworn it was the same man who had looked at her on their way in. Now, with his helmet tucked under his opposite arm she could properly see his face. Brown eyes, soft lips, stubble, and short but styled dark hair. Handsome was definitely an understatement. The rest of his features were hidden under the bulky uniform he wore; a name tag on his chest read: Diaz. 

"All good," he smiled. She tried not to melt but her heart was already racing. "You alright?"  
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah I'm fine," she said.  
"Good, good," his smile was soft and warm. 

"Diaz!" A man's voice called, deep and authoritative.  
"Gotta go," he told her and motioned in the direction of the voice who called his name. She nodded. He gave her shoulder a soft squeeze before he jogged off to catch up with the rest of his team. She watched as he went. 

"Damn," a voice came from behind her making her jump. Her aide, a woman older but shorter than her (which she thought was an actual feat given that she was only five feet herself) grinned.  
"Oh my God," Katie breathed heavily trying to catch her breath.  
"Did you get his number?" She asked.  
"Paula, please," Katie said her face turning even redder.  
"Girl, even I can't deny how handsome that boy was. Also, room 2 is asking for pain meds," Paula said before walking away to get to her next task.  
Katie took a breath and made her way toward the Med Room. 

>>>*<<<

Only a month later and the world had become a different place. With the breakout of the Coronavirus the hospital had become a hub of chaos. The only positive to have come from the situation is that the influx of patients happened after she had finally been transferred to a pediatric unit. It didn't reduce exposure risk but she much preferred to care for children than adults. 

It was a little after 2pm when the fire alarm went off. She scooped another bite of instant oatmeal into her mouth and scraped the container to finish the rest wondering why it seemed fires always picked her lunch break to pop up. Finishing her food she stood and tossed it in the trash, put her face mask back on and headed back out on to the unit. The alarms sounded for only a moment before silencing and switching only to use of the strobe on the alarms to alert of the situation. The bonus of pediatrics was the more silent alarm approach to not scare the kids who are already usually pretty scared to begin with. 

As the other staff on the floor attended to their duties and fire protocols she walked into a room to check on a toddler whose parents had been at work for the last few hours. Walking over to the crib she was relieved to see that the young boy was still fast asleep, unfazed by the split second shriek of the alarm. Relief flowed over her and she reached in to straighten the child's blanket before walking out of the room and nodding to a unit therapist who was standing outside the cluster of rooms waiting for the code red to be cleared. 

Katie walked over to a computer in the nurse's station and sat down to catch up on charting and check over orders. After a few moments the alarm switched off and an overhead announcement cleared the code. She was unfazed. She didn't look away from the charting system until a warm voice asked, "Hey, can I get a pen, Miss?" 

She looked up and her light green eyes met with warm brown ones. A firefighter stood on the other side of the counter. His hair was styled impeccably and his LAFD face mask covered the rest of his face leaving his bright eyes as the focal point of his face. She recognized those eyes; her mind remembering that last time she had seen them - seen him.

"Oh!" he said when she had looked up at him, he remembered her, too. "uh, hey." He was smiling beneath the mask, his eyes giving away what the face mask was hiding. "you were somewhere else last time." He seemed to cringe at his own statement. She was thankful for her own mask because she was sure her face turned as red as the alarms that were shut off. "I mean, a different... you were on a different unit?" He meant it as a statement but it sounded more like a question.

She was blushing and despite his mask she could tell his face was also getting a little redder. His fumbling only made her think he was even cuter. "Yeah, transferred down here recently. It's where I wanted to be."  
"Yeah? You like kids?" he asked. "I mean, I guess you do..." He wished he would shut up and stop sounding like an idiot but ever since their meeting last month he secretly hoped they would meet again.  
"Uh, yeah, I do," she answered.  
"Of course. Me too. Well, I love my kid, don't know what I would do without him," he said.  
"Ah," she responded. Her heart dropped. He had a kid which must mean he was already married and she was misinterpreting this whole conversation. He wasn't flirting, he was just being nice, if not also a little awkward.  
Sensing her shift in tone he blurt, "single-dad, you know." 

Again her heart lifted but there was an awkward silence now. Before either could search their brains for the right thing to say another firefighter came jogging up to the station. Like the man already before her he was wearing his face mask. This man was taller, his hair golden, and a birthmark over his left eye highlighted the lightness of his eyes. "Hey, Eddie, what's taking so --" he placed a hand on the other man, Eddie's, shoulder and came to a stop beside him at the counter, his sentence stopping as his body did when he looked over at her seated at the computer. "Oh," he was caught off guard a moment but once he registered what must be going on she saw the corners of his eyes crinkle as he must have been smiling now. "I see," his voice had a hint of amusement. Katie couldn't help but feel like this man had the energy and personality of a golden retriever and it made her smile, but her eyes stayed focused on Eddie. 

Almost as if he snapped out of some sort of trance thanks to the arrival of his friend he said, "right... right." He looked down at the counter and at the same time he remembered his original reason for popping up she did as well. By the time he looked up she had located a pen and reached out to hand it to him. He reached over the counter and grabbed it, his fingers brushing against hers as he did. Both of their breaths hitched in their chests for a moment, though neither made it noticeable. The Golden firefighter, whose name tag read Buckley, seemed to look between the two of them with a spark of curiosity. Later Katie would reflect on how Buckley is a perfect name for a golden retriever and therefore such a fitting name for the man who came padding on over to the side of his best friend. 

"Thanks," Eddie said as he pulled a few papers out from under his jacket and used the pen to sign something at the bottom. He could have left the pen on the counter, but he went to hand it back initiating that split second contact again.  
"Thank you..." Katie answered as he handed the pen back to her as if their roles were reversed and it was her who had asked for it in the first place. "I mean, you're welcome," she course corrected.

This made Buckley smile beneath his mask again. He leaned against the counter seemingly to make himself more comfortable, as if he was about to watch a game at a sports bar. Eddie saw this change in body language and immediately knew it was because the taller man beside him was very entertained at his highly awkward flirtation. Embarrassed at definitely not being the embodiment of calm, cool, and collected that he strived to portray on a daily basis he cleared his throat, turned to his partner and said, "Right, okay. Let's go, Buck." 

Buck raised his eyebrows. "You sure?"  
"What? Yes, let's go," he looked back at Katie. "Thank you."  
"No problem," she answered.  
"Thanks," Buck also added as Eddie started walking passed him to leave. Buck watched for a moment before looking back at her then back at his retreating friend. He turned and started walking up to him. 

Katie watched them go for a moment before turning her attention back to her surroundings. On the counter top she saw the papers Eddie had signed still resting where they had been left. 

"Hey! Wait!" she stood as she called out and grabbed the papers and gave them a soft wave. 

The two men stopped and turned around and saw her standing with the paperwork in her outstretched hand. She barely heard Buck give a soft laugh as he nudged Eddie to run back for the papers. As Eddie half jogged back down the hall to fetch the papers Buck stood with his arms folded, again as if enjoying some sort of play. 

"I'm so sorry," he said as he stood before her once again and took the papers.  
"You're all good," she smiled.  
He nodded and then left to rejoin Buck and head out. 

Once the men were out of sight a call-light went off. The room across from the nurse's station's light began softly blinking. Katie stood and walked into the room. Washing her hands and announcing herself she entered and approached the little girl sitting in the bed. She was 10 years old, her arm in a cast, and her tablet was beside her; her mother silently watching from the other side. 

"Is everything alright?" Katie asked.  
"Yeah," the girl said, "Nurse, was that your boyfriend?"  
"I'm sorry?" Katie asked taken aback.  
"Sam! You can't ask people things like that!" came the disembodied voice of the girl's mother from the tablet.  
"Sorry," Sam said.  
Katie laughed, "it's alright. Can I get you anything, sweetheart?"  
"I'm OK, thanks, though," the girl answered as she picked up the tablet from her bed.  
"OK, if you need anything call, alright?" Katie said. Sam nodded.  
As Katie left the room she heard Sam say to her mother, "it was so cute, Mom! He was acting so shy! I think he likes her."  
Katie couldn't stop smiling the rest of the shift.

**Author's Note:**

> More characters will be added in later chapters. Probably gonna be a slow-burn. Sorry for any grammatical or other errors I am not feeling well but I wanted to get this up for ya'll. It is going to be at least two chapters but I may turn it into an even longer series depending on how things go.


End file.
